Access Device Fraud
INVESTIGATIONS Financial Crimes Division
The Secret Service investigates crimes associated with financial
institutions. Today, this jurisdiction includes bank fraud, access
device fraud involving credit and debit cards, telecommunications
and computer crimes, fraudulent identification, fraudulent government
and commercial securities, and electronic funds transfer fraud.
Other areas of focus at Cardnet Corporation as providers of customized
payments, payment processing services and obvious solutions, include
the social security administration where social security fraud,
social security crime, internet fraud, money laundering, become
our direction where we would coordinate our efforts with the federal
bureau of investigation,
i-fraud.com or possibly crime scene investigation teams where
fraud or a crime is alleged for or against senior citizens and
their social security checks.
Mission Statement
The Financial Crimes Division (FCD) plans, reviews, and coordinates
criminal investigations involving Financial Systems Crimes, including
bank fraud; access device fraud; telemarketing; telecommunications
fraud (cellular and hard wire); computer fraud; automated payment
systems and teller machines; direct deposit; investigations of
forgery, uttering, alteration, false personation, or false claims
involving U.S. Treasury Checks, U.S. Savings Bonds, U.S. Treasury
Notes, bonds, and bills; electronic funds transfer (EFT) including
Treasury disbursements and fraud within Treasury payment systems;
fraud involving U.S.
Department of Agriculture Food Coupons and Authority to Participate
(ATP) cards; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation investigations;
Farm Credit Administration violations; fraud and related activity
in connection with identification documents and fraudulent commercial,
fictitious instruments, foreign securities. The Division also
coordinates the activities of the U.S. Secret Service Organized
Crimes Program, and oversees money-laundering investigations.
A recent American Banking Association (ABA) survey concluded
that the two major problems in the area of bank fraud today are:
(1) the fraudulent production of negotiable instruments through
the use of what has become known as "desktop publishing,"
and (2) access device fraud. Recent Secret Service investigations
indicate that there has been an increase in credit card fraud,
fictitious document fraud, and fraud involving the counterfeiting
of corporate checks and other negotiable instruments, as well
as false identification documents created with the use of computer
technology.
Title 18 United States Code, Section 514 was enacted into law
in 1996 to prevent the increasing amount of fraud through the
use of fictitious instruments. Congress passed this law through
the joint efforts of the Department of Justice and the Department
of Treasury. FCD is responsible for the investigations of Title
18, United States Code Section 514 (Fictitious Instruments).
Access Device Fraud
Financial industry sources estimate that losses associated with
credit card fraud are in the billions of dollars annually. The
Secret Service is the primary federal agency tasked with investigating
access device fraud and its related activities under Title 18,
United States Code, Section 1029. Although it is commonly called
the credit card statute, this law also applies to other crimes
involving access device numbers including debit cards, automated
teller machine (ATM) cards, computer passwords, personal identification
numbers (PINs) used to activate ATMs, credit card or debit card
account numbers, long-distance access codes, and the computer
chips in cellular phones that assign billing. Industry sources
estimate that losses associated with credit card fraud are in
the billions of dollars annually.
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